Greece’s foreign ministry on Tuesday presented Turkey’s ambassador to the country with a demarche protesting the harassment of a helicopter carrying Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to an eastern Aegean border isle on Monday.
According to reports, Athens’ demarche charges that the incident undermines the safety of all involved and does not contribute to developing good-neighborly relations.
Tsipras himself disclosed the incident after landing on the island of Agathonisi to attend events on the occasion of Greek Independence Day.
The Greek government revealed that two Turkish F-4 “Phantoms” came within four miles of a twin-propeller Chinook helicopter carrying Tsipras and his party, causing the chopper’s pilots to change course and altitude.
Greek F-16s were immediately scrambled from an airbase on Crete to intercept the Turkish warplanes.
The Turkish side, mostly from leaks to the press, denied any instance of “harassment”, but did not deny the presence of fighter planes in the region.
